Monthly Archives: January 2013

Concerned Scientists: Renewables Secure From Drought – Forbes. Even those who don’t believe humans are causing climate change have a hard time rebuffing the national-security argument—which contends that a diverse domestic energy portfolio makes the United States less vulnerable to disruptions of its energy supply. Drought may not be the first threat that comes to mind, but the Union of Concerned Scientists contends that this summer’s drought is already straining the operation of water-heavy fossil fuel and nuclear plants. “Our power sector is built for a water-rich world, and when that world is water poor, power plants and electricity users face … Continue reading this post →

I was recently having a debate with a conservative friend about the efficacy of infrastructure spending by the government vs. private sector. His point was that any dollar spent by the private sector will be more efficient than the same dollar spent by government. I generally agreed, but pointed out that the private sector under-invests in things like infrastructure and R&D as a matter of basic economic theory (to read more on this check out my article about the concept of “market failure” here). Additionally, I made the point that borrowing $1 at near-zero rates and investing in infrastructure & R&D, … Continue reading this post →

The face of climate change in America | Climate Reality. How is climate change affecting the United States right now? What about the part of the country where you live? These questions are now a lot easier to answer with the release of a major new draft report: The National Climate Assessment.

Now is the time | The White House. Check out this awesome page the White House has put together on the plan to reform gun laws. Very thorough, inspiring, informative, and touching. Now is the time! Please share.

NYT: Burning Fuel Particles Do More Damage than Originally Thought Burning Fuel Particles Do More Damage to Climate Than Thought, Study Says By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Published: January 16, 2013 The tiny black particles released into the atmosphere by burning fuels are far more powerful agents of global warming than had previously been estimated, some of the world’s most prominent atmospheric scientists reported in a study issued on Tuesday. These particles, which are known as black carbon and are the major component of soot, are the second most important contributor to global warming, behind only carbon dioxide, wrote the 31 authors … Continue reading this post →

2012 was hottest year on record in contiguous U.S., NOAA says – The Washington Post. 2012 hottest year on record in contiguous U.S., NOAA says By Juliet Eilperin, Published: January 8 Temperatures in the contiguous United States last year were the hottest in more than a century of record-keeping, shattering the mark set in 1998 by a wide margin, the federal government announced Tuesday. The average temperature in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, one degree above the previous record and 3.2 degrees higher than the 20th-century average, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. They described the data as part of a … Continue reading this post →

Climate change and poverty have not gone away An economic and political system that does not deliver for most citizens is one that is not sustainable in the long run Joseph Stiglitz guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 January 2013 10.19 EST A colony of king penguins and an elephant seal on Possession Island. Because we have been so slow to respond to climate change, achieving the targeted limit of a 2C rise in global temperature will require sharp reductions in emissions in the future. Photograph: Marcel Mochet/AFP/Getty Images In the shadow of the euro crisis and America’s fiscal cliff, it is easy to ignore … Continue reading this post →

The Economic Impact of Wind Energy | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural. The Economic Impact of Wind Energy There are 47,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity installed in the U.S. The authors of a new study say that for each megawatt of wind capacity, a county gains half a job and just over $11,000 in total personal income. This is the wind energy farm in Roscoe, Texas, where 627 wind turbines can churn out as much as 781.5 megawatts of power. A new study finds that for every megawatt of wind capacity installed in a county, half a job … Continue reading this post →

(Originally posted at www.mbcdfw.com) Winter Wind Credited With Record Power Generation | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said winter winds that brought low temperatures also contributed to a wind power generation record. At 3 p.m. Christmas Day, 8,638 megawatts of power was provided by Texas wind farms. ERCOT said 6,600 mw were created in West Texas windfarms and another 1,600 were created along the Texas coast. “This output represented nearly 26 percent of system load in ERCOT at the time. This new record is 117 MW higher than the previous 8,521 MW record set on … Continue reading this post →